1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the use of fluent materials, and, in particular, relates to the use of fluent materials for use in disasters, emergencies and in other applications, and, in greater particularity, relates to the use of sandbags in large quantities, and to devices for filling, storing, and transporting, and the methods thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is a well know fact that rivers, streams, lakes, and other bodies of water subject to spring runoff or heavy rains from storms are likely to over flow their banks or breach a levee flooding property nearby. In response thereto, persons will attempt to block the flow of water by sandbagging. Because of a lack of specialized heavy equipment such as large front-end tractor loaders, which is addressed by the present invention, preparing sandbags is usually a hand process involving tedious and physically intensive labor. Someone or something holds the bag open as someone shovels sand into the bag. The bag is sealed, stacked, and then transported to the location where they will be used or stored.
Some prior devices are used for filling multiple sandbags by hand where the sandbags are held in position by unique frames such as shown by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,848,652 and 5,884,878. These structures are limited and further require manual shoveling of the sand into the bags. The unique frames may be large and difficult to move. Further, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,390,154 and 6,553,713 disclose uniquely shaped bags for the purpose of building retaining walls, for example, in a levee. To address the problem of moving the sand to the sandbags other than by manual labor, U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,127 shows the use of a conveyor belt feeding two chutes for filling bags held at the bottom thereof. This requires that the bags be moved to a stacking location by hand and further sand must be placed onto the conveyor belt. This problem is then addressed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,044,921 and 5,873,396 that show the use of a truck carried hopper filled with sand feeding a single bagging chute. In order to automate the processing of filling sandbags, U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,309 shows a large hopper for feeding sand to screw augers that feed the sand into a bagging area. A continuous source of bagging material is provided thereon wherein an operator can select the weight of the bag. A sealing member cuts and seals the bagging material into a discrete bag of sand. This apparatus requires that the sandbags be manually moved to a stacking area. To further address the problem of moving the filled sandbags, U.S. Pat. No. 6,978,812 discloses a large trailer device having a sand hopper feeding an ascending conveyor belt that drops the sand into multiple chutes for filling of sandbags. Once the sandbags are filled, they are pushed onto a second conveyor belt that moves them to a stacking area.
For levees in danger of breaching or that have broken, typically dump trucks bring in large amounts of gravel, rocks, sand, etc., that are placed in or on the endangered area. The use of conventional sandbags may be insufficient to control water currents eroding banks or breaches.
When wild fires threaten high value structures such as homes, prevention is normally a combination of actions such as combustible material removal such as cutting a fire break line or a buffer zone around the structure(s) and the use of water from fire trucks and/or the use of aircraft having a fire retardant mixture therein for dropping. Because of winds and/or incorrect flight paths and/or difficult terrain for fixed wing aircraft, the fire retardant mixture may miss the target. These devices and methods may be insufficient to address fast moving wild fires because of numerous requirements. Further, fires in high rise structures may be out of reach of conventional fire equipment.
The control of icy conditions is critical in many situations. Typically, a combination of sand and ice melting materials are applied to pavements in many situations. This may involve parking lots, driveways, highways, and runways. Small trucks are fitted with removable hoppers for dispersing sand/salt or dedicated trucks with hoppers with dispersing devices such as are used on major highways. Further, these dedicated trucks also plow the roads of snow before applying the sand/salt materials.
Accordingly, there is an established need for devices for apply fluent materials in situations where large capacity is required to meet the requirements for minimizing manual labor, time and cost.